BUSHkids Annual Report 2015-16

CENTRES

Centre reports

Bundaberg

Dalby

Emerald

This year, we welcomed Elise and Amy, completing our full team while farewelling Tara and Georgie from the Bundy team. We have continued our support this year to our Outreach areas and families (Gin Gin, Childers and Burnett Heads) which has been very positive and appreciated.

A strong team offers a wide range of services to the local community and outreach towns that we visit. We were able to offer many Prep readiness talks and combined therapy programs that were conducted for clients and families in their homes and in kindergartens. The Triple P programs were offered here at the Centre and to the Indigenous community at Goondir Medical Centre. Our relation- ships with the schools has grown and saw us offering many class group intervention services. Read and Grow training was provided by BUSHkids at the Dalby Library for the community to attend. Our FHSW has been able to offer many group programs in the community around social skills and resilience groups for children, as well as parenting groups. This successful year has now ended with staff moving on to new careers and now a new strong team is evolving. The Dalby community and surrounds is settling again after a downturn in the mining industry, but this resilient community continues to grow and BUSHkids is a strong presence offering a wide range of specialised services and early intervention programs in the area.

Another busy year in Emerald: we have continued outreach to The Gemfields community and have taken a soft entry approach to help community capacity- building in the local area. Prioritisation of referrals has been well received in the community, as children have been able to access the services they need in a more timely fashion. In September 2015, we welcomed our new Provisional Psychologist, Myles, and in February 2016 we farewelled Occupational Therapist (OT) Sarah, and welcomed OT Jess to the team.

THEYEAR IN GENERAL

Again this year, Bundaberg and the surrounding communities hosted a range of community events. Some of the events that the Bundy team contributed to included: Under-8s days, Literacy days, Rainbow day and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s day. We have also completed a number of community education sessions and presentations for both parents/carers and teachers. The presentations include information for families/teachers on BUSHkids services, who we are, available groups and therapy, how to refer, red flags and milestones and strategies to support development.

Emerald continues to feel the effect of the downturn in the mining communities. Our waitlists continued to grow, and as a result, the Emerald team was required to set some parameters for outreach services. This has resulted in some of our outreach being put on hold with therapists providing assessment and recommendations only to some of our outreach towns. Therapists continue to work closely with Education Queensland, Community Health, and private therapists to fill the gap in the community and ensure there is no duplication of services.

AROUND OURAREA

This year the team has attended a range of forums, meetings and events within our community to continue to build partnerships and work collaboratively with local organisations and key stake- holders to enable us to work effectively and address identified needs.

BUSHkids has a great profile in the town – we are well recognised and find ourselves in the local newspaper many times in relation to the work we do. We are asked to talk at many networking events and Mother’s groups. Friends of BUSHkids Dalby is a support to the work we do.

The Emerald team continues to develop networks with local agencies, with several members also attending discipline-specific networking meetings with clinicians in the local area. Charlie Wilson (grandson of Sir Leslie) has reestablished the Friends of BUSHkids Emerald committee, and we look forward to working together with them. The Gemfields RSL continued to support BUSHkids during the past year. We also assisted with the Enwise-organised fundraising Golf Day in November 2015: it was a great turn-out from the community with many people asking questions about the BUSHkids service in a fun and relaxed setting. This annual event repeated on 7 October 2016, where we intended to build our support network and further engage with the local community.

IN OUR COMMUNITY

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